Human Rights Watch has issued a report on drug rehabilitation center abuse in China. According to the report that largely focuses on Yunnan, forced unpaid labor, degrading treatment, and a lack of basic medical care were among some of the abuses found. The following is one woman’s view of the system, from the New York Times:
Fu Lixin, emotionally exhausted from caring for her sick mother, needed a little pick-me-up. A friend offered her a “special cigarette” — one laced with methamphetamine — and Ms. Fu happily inhaled.
The next day, three policemen showed up at her door.
“They asked me to urinate in a cup,” she said. “My friend had been arrested and turned me in. It was a drug test. I failed on the spot.”
Although she said it was her first time smoking meth, Ms. Fu, 41, was promptly sent to one of China’s compulsory drug rehabilitation centers. The minimum stay is two years, and life is an unremitting gantlet of physical abuse and forced labor without any drug treatment, according to former inmates and substance abuse professionals.
“It was a hell I’m still trying to recover from,” she said.
From AFP, some notes on the impact of the Anti-Drug Law on rehabilitation centers:
Amid rising drug use in recent years, China passed the [Anti-Drug] law in a bid to standardise its system of drug detention and rehabilitation centres, raising hope of a new climate in which users would be treated as patients, not inmates.
But Human Rights Watch said the system is still run by police, not health care professionals.
It added that the law had actually expanded the power of police to arbitrarily detain individuals without a reasonable suspicion of drug use and force them to take urine tests.
It also increased the minimum sentence ... « Back to Article

We have been working very hard to get Narcotics Anonymous meeting going in the City of Wuhan which has dozens of treatment centers in one place. These centers are beginning to recognize the need for a form of drug rehabilitation system tha works.

We have done a formal presentation in one center and which was well received by both the staff and the patients. A Chinese NA group was formed the weekend of that conference. We have paid the rent for a meeting space in Wuhan and recently one woman and one man both celebrated 1 year clean! This is truly a mircacle in motion.

One member is opening his own center which will be based on the 12 step recovery model that was worked for millions of addicts around the world. The concept of addicts helping addicts to get clean has been working very succesfuly around the world. This approach costs the government and the local communities nothing as we are self-supporting through our own contributions.

There is hope for adddicts in China to recover from the disease of addiction in the program of Narcotics Anonymous. If you are in China and are interested in information on Narcotics Anonymous and/or NA literature you may contact Geoff T. at rangeelageoff@gmail.com.

At 28 year of age, I had lost everything; My wife, my son, my business, my house, a felony conviction and my self-esteem was gone. I found Narcotics Anonymous in a treatment center 3 hours from my home in 1981. This September I celebrated 28 years clean. If I can get clean and stay clean, anyone can.